After a disastrous 2023 season in which they went 71-91, the St. Louis Cardinals will look to bounce back in 2024 after a flurry of off-season moves targeted at addressing a variety of different needs. With the Birds first losing season since 2007 – a campaign in which they ended the season 20 games below .500 and finished last in the National League (NL) Central Division for the first time since 1990 – the organization has experienced a much-needed wake-up call on what it takes to remain competitive in the 2020s.
The Cardinals, whose pitching staff had a disheartening 4.79 Earned Run Average (ERA) in 2023, looked to meet many of their short-term pitching needs over this past offseason. Most notably, the Cardinals signed 34-year-old American League Cy Young Award Runner-Up starting pitcher, Sonny Gray, to a three-year, $75 million contract on Nov. 27; General Manager Mike Girsch also signed Veteran SP Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson to one-year deals, respectively. While the organization promised the city they would add three starting pitchers before the season’s start, fans continue to have mixed feelings about the staff’s rotation, particularly because the youngest member will be left-hander Steven Matz at 32.
Miles Mikolas, who started versus the Los Angeles Dodgers on the first game of the season, commented on critics doubting the team.
“I’m not going to tell all the people doubting us to eat s***. I’d like to, but in the off chance I’m wrong, I look like an idiot,” Mikolas said, per Athletic Writer Katie Woo. “But in the chance they’re wrong, and I’m right, that’d be pretty neat.”
James Vincent Michael O’Brien, a baseball commentator, YouTuber and internet personality better known to fans as “Jomboy,” discussed the Cardinals’ free agent signings and upcoming season on an episode of his baseball Podcast “Talkin’ Baseball.”
“Cardinals fans were excited when they said they were going to get three pitchers… and they’re still kind of upset with the three they landed on – mainly due to age,” Jomboy said. However, O’Brien commented on how the additions will serve as a turning point for the franchise moving forward. “I think with Gibby [Kyle Gibson] and [Lance] Lynn and [Sonny] Gray you are going to build a competitive-as-f*** mindset; results, we’ll see… I do think there’s a lot of guidance that they [the Cardinals front office] want from this leadership crew,” he said.
With their short-term pitching needs mostly patched up from last season, the Cards will have to put a lot of their eggs into their often polarizing offense’s basket. After a down year from franchise cornerstones Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, the first and third basemen will look to have bounce-back years. Wilson Contreras, the catcher whom the team signed in free agency in Feb. 2023, will look to remain as the Cardinal’s backstop and continue to produce offensively – much like he did regularly in the second half in 2023.
Moreover, a steady dose of the team’s young studs, including position players Nolan Gorman, Jordan Walker, Masyn Winn and Victor Scott II will all look to continue to get better as they get more and more reps at the big league level. These players, who all started against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Mar. 28 in a 7-1 loss, made MLB history by serving as four players starting 23 years old or younger in an Opening Day Lineup. Moving forward, the Cardinals will begin to fall back upon these guys more as they will look to form a core to which the front office will be able to build upon.
Scott Coleman of SB Nation wrote an article previewing the Cards 2024 season titled, “2024 Season Preview: St. Louis Cardinals” on Mar. 4.
“While the NL Central may have more depth than in prior years, with the Reds showing signs of life, and the Pirates not being disastrous, it looks open for the taking if a few things break right,” Coleman said. “As of this writing, FanGraphs projects 84 wins for the Cardinals, two more than the Cubs, three more than the Brewers and four more than the Reds. The Cardinals do have the highest division odds, and a result, playoff odds slightly above 50 percent but this is pretty much a toss-up at this point,” Coleman said. “Ultimately, this looks like a race that could feature three or four teams deep into August and September, even if it’s very possible that none of those teams will be good. But the Cardinals could be good!”
The Cardinals also extended Manager Oliver Marmol through the end of 2026 – a questionable move that came after one of the worst seasons of Cardinal baseball in recent memory, let alone most SLU student’s lives.
St. Louis will also be one of nine teams getting a “City Connect” jersey in the first half of 2024, a uniform that seeks to “celebrates each city’s deep-rooted history, culture and spirit that continues to bring the clubs and their communities together,” according to MLB. That uniform will likely incorporate “the Lou” somewhere on the chest, along with a red color scheme – as none of the Redbird’s jerseys have red as their dominant color scheme.
Overall, while there is much upside to this season of Cardinal baseball– as there usually is– it is difficult to tell whether these past offseason moves were enough to turn this team into a legitimate threat in the National League. Although this Cardinals team could make a convincing run at the NL Central and perhaps even win that title– most fans would be surprised if they are able to compete with other National League juggernauts such as the LA Dodgers or Atlanta Braves.
The Cardinals home opener will take place on April 4th at 3:10 against the Miami Marlins at Busch Stadium.
